Eurovision Song Contest 2009
|withdraw = |vote = Each country gives 12, 10, 8, 7-1 to their 10 favorite songs. Semi-final: Nine qualifiers are chosen by televote, the tenth is selected by a back-up jury Final: 50% of a country's score is determined by televote while the other 50% is determined by national juries, which are then combined |nul = (in semi-final) |winner = Alexander Rybak - Fairytale |semi = N/A |conductor = N/A |previous = 2008 |next = 2010 }} The Eurovision Song Contest 2009 was the 54th edition held in Moscow, Russia at the Olympic Indoor Arena. The two semi-finals took place on 12 May and 14 May 2009 presented by Natalia Vodianova and Andrey Malahov, while the final took place on 16 May presented by Ivan Urgant and 2000 Russian Eurovision participant Alsou. 42 countries participated, Slovakia returned and San Marino withdrew. Georgia was forced to withdraw after it was learned that their chosen song featured political content which was a violation of the contest's rules. Despite not being able to participate in the contest, Australia sent Julia Zemiro and Sam Pang as its commentators to Moscow on behalf of their public channel SBS for the first time, having aired the contest since 1983 and gaining a massive fan following since then. There was also a change for the United Kingdom when popular TV presenter Graham Norton took over commentary duties at the grand final for the BBC from Sir Terry Wogan, who had resigned from the position following the result of the previous year's contest. In response to the criticisms regarding the voting system in the previous contests, the system was re-vamped for the 2009 contest. For the grand final, each country's votes would be decided by a combination of 50% televoting results and 50% national jury. The semi-finals would remain the same as in 2008, with 9 qualifiers decided by public televote and the tenth decided by a backup jury. Norway won the contest for the third time with the song Fairytale by Alexander Rybak, breaking the all-time record for points with 387 (which was eventually broken by Jamala in 2016 and then by Salvador Sobral a year later due to a new voting system). Among the Big Four nations, the United Kingdom placed the highest finishing 5th overall, their second-best record of the 21st century. Results Semi-Final One and the voted in this semi. It was held on 12 May 2009 The entry marked in aqua denotes the qualifier selected by the backup jury Semi-Final Two and voted in this semi. was also scheduled to televote in this semi-final, but due to scheduling errors at TVE, the semi-final was aired late and Spanish viewers were not able to vote, so the Spanish jury's vote was used instead. Albania also had scheduling conflicts and their jury vote was only counted. The semi was held on 14 May 2009. The entry marked in aqua denotes the qualifier selected by the backup jury Grand Final All countries voted. SMS voting was the only method used to provide the Hungarian public voting scores as the televotes could not be counted due to a technical problem. Also, Norway's jury vote was used because a technical mistake by the local telephone operator rendered the televotes and SMS texts unusable. The final was held on 21 May 2009 Category:Russia Category:Norway Category:Eurovision Song Contest 2009 Category:21st Century Eurovision Category:Winners with a score over 300 points Category:Record holder Category:Rules changes